


The Sand and the Sieve

by cjwritergal



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Angst, Drabble, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-11
Updated: 2010-02-11
Packaged: 2018-01-12 00:33:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1179791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cjwritergal/pseuds/cjwritergal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>No matter how much he held, it always slipped through his fingers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Sand and the Sieve

**Author's Note:**

> Written for fma_fic_contest for the prompt "flush".
> 
> Title is inspired by "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury.

* * *

Before, the sun burned his skin during the hours the masters told him to work outside, until he worked past the pain and it fell away.

People were like that too.

The longer he lived, the more fell away.

No matter how much he had, it always slipped through his fingers; slipped past his palms, falling away on the wind, going places he could never find, no matter how long he looked.

_Who would have thought that it would be so hard to fade with them?_

Her eyes smiled even when her mouth didn't. Her kisses sent a flush all over his body.

He held her, wishing with all of his heart, and all of the souls he contained- _wrong as it may have been to use them for something so selfish-_  that she and his sons wouldn't slip away.

He left her and his bright eyed boys so that when it was time, he could fall away too.

But years passed and his boys grew, and his wife slipped from his fingers anyway, and he wasn't even there to see her go.

In the end, his boys risked it all, lost everything, but managed to catch most of it before it fell.

And he had both of his boys again before he left and finally slipped away, with her grave by his side.

_In the end, he didn't really want to die._

But she was waiting. She'd promised.

… _her hand reached out to brush his face, and he smiled._


End file.
